None of these new fancy pants solutions will work for me. I really wish they would, but they don’t. To me, they screw it up fundamentally.

First, no one needs to understand degrees. I shouldn’t need to know or appreciate the difference between 70 degrees and 71 degrees. Chances are, I can’t tell the difference. When I approach my thermostat, I’m not looking to know a fine level of temperature detail. I go to the thermostat because I want it to be warmer or colder, period. So, first, the main thing it needs to have is a quick way to adjust warmer or cooler.

Second, ideally, I shouldn’t need to tell it whether I want heat or AC or even just fan functions. It should be able to, using my home’s internet connection, figure out where it is and get the local weather. That should be enough to tell it whether it should be on heat or AC, or perhaps whether it should suggest to me that I leave a window open and turn the fan on.

Third, there does need to be programming and automation but these thermostats are all doing it wrong. It doesn’t need to be based on time; it needs to be based on who is home. Ideally, you create a means of knowing who is home (an NFC check-in at the doorways would work, but there’s other ways) and automatically respond to it. Less ideally, you give me a quick way to tell the thermostat whether I’m “home” or “away”. Some people will be able to set home vs. away on a schedule, and that can be an option, but several times a year at least (and almost all the time for us), that schedule will be *wrong*, so no matter what, you need to give a quick way to set home or away. And even more so, if you provide a remote access app for smartphones or PCs, I need to be able to tell it that I’ll be home at X time and to prep the house accordingly. That is the most frequent thing I will do, so it should be up front and easy. Really, once you figure out “home” and “away”, everything else is advanced settings for scheduling and automation. I can envision conditions like “If living room lights are on, I am home” or “If fridge is opened, I am home” that would help automate the system. With smartphones thrown into the mix, you could add checks like “if I’m in my car and in motion on a weekday, I’m on my way home” or “if I have a calendar notice where location is not home, I’m not home”. The point being that the thermostats out there today screw it up by assuming that people follow a standard pattern in a week, when people don’t really work that way. They follow a schedule that they’ve set on some calendar somewhere which may or may not cycle weekly, monthly, or at all. So…back to my point, your first step is home or away. Second step is a way to figure out which of those is true, which could be any one of a number of ways.

Finally, there should be a simple setup system at the beginning of use (which can be re-done later somehow if needed) that asks or figures out:

• Do you tend to prefer warmer rooms or colder rooms?
• Would you rather be very energy efficient or very comfortable?
• Do you have a family member (such as a pet) that is in the house most or all of the time, even when you’re away? (and potentially some drill-down based on this answer)

The first item helps it figure out a baseline to start with (that later learns and is tweaked by tapping warmer or cooler). The second item determines how responsive it should be to requests. The last item tells it how inhospitable it can make your environment when you’re away. Someone with pets, particularly amphibians, reptiles, or fish, needs the house to be kept at a certain temperature no matter what. The same is true of someone with a bedridden or house-confined family member.

You can get super-fancy with this, with smartphone integration, sensors, per-user settings, etc., or you can get super-simple with just a warmer/cooler button. Either way, giving more individually programmable days and bigger fancier screens just complicates things. And automatically trying to guess a schedule doesn’t help either. They need to step back and think about what the user does with a thermostat rather than looking at what thermostats do right now.

My favorite part is when the person goes to the classic argument used by children the world over: “But, [insert a friend's name here] is getting a pony!” Nevermind that there is no confirmation that a friend is getting a pony, nor that the pony will be the same…and even if so, that means the friend is investing the aforementioned time and money, somehow. The friend isn’t magically getting a no-maintenance pony that flies.

Ponies sometimes happen around here. Sometimes, the ponies even fly. But, ponies never happen without time and money.

• Google
• Amazon
• Disney
• Zappos (which is part of Amazon now, but still operating independently)
• Microsoft

What will be fun is to look back at this in five years to see if it’s the same.

And that’s it. Work has been so hectic that I’ve barely had time to pee, much less eat…and then I had to run to class last night (hence managing to grab a sandwich from McD’s, which did make me a little late to class), which meant that by the time I got home, it was really too late to eat. This morning, I skipped breakfast because of a presentation that needed polishing ASAP…and spent the whole damn day working on that same presentation at the expense of everything else that needed to get done.

Oh, by the way, I still have work to do. I’m just taking a break while some things I need are being assembled. And I’ve ordered a pizza.

In other news, for those who don’t watch the twitter feed, my dear husband did it again. I guess we’re going to the Dominican Republic in Feb. Here’s where we’re staying: http://foxyurl.com/N3J

That having been said, I already know that I will have 1-2 days of tourist time in Taipei. My flight arrives at 5am Taipei time on Sunday, and I need to make sure I stay awake that day to combat jet lag. So, for that day, I will definitely be doing some tourist things. I’m thinking about making a reservation for the hot springs in Beitou. I could almost go straight there from the airport and save my company some TWDs in the process (as even the most luxurious room in Beitou is 1000TWD less than my hotel in Taipei). But, I don’t know. I’ve heard mixed reviews of the hot springs, and, particularly during the summer, the hot water might not be as appealing. So, unless I just get a burr up my butt to take the MRT out there, I’ll probably stay near the hotel. The Hyatt hotel in Taipei is awesome, and I can spend that day doing nearby activities, like shopping and museums, or enjoying the hotel amenities (indoor pool, really nice gym overlooking the city).

I also don’t have any meetings scheduled on Monday, so that will probably end up being a light work day, leaving me time in the evening for activities or shopping.

Speaking of shopping, were there any souvenirs that anyone reading this blog wanted from Taipei that they didn’t get last time? Also, is there anyone who wants to be on my postcard list for this trip that isn’t normally on my list?

Anyways, I’m working on a work project with huge visibility (I presented directly to our CEO today), and it is a ton of work. I’m also back to doing more sporadic daytrip-style travel. The project I’m on is cool, and I enjoy working on it, but it keeps me busy. I’m working beyond 50 hour weeks these days.

On top of that, the class that I’m in for school this term is very demanding. We have a large amount of reading every week, plus a paper and presentation due every week. Point being, I’m going to be swamped for the next 10 weeks (school term) at least. It’s very likely that I’ll be swamped until fall with work, too. So, if you are not seeing frequent updates here, I’m just bogged down. Check Twitter for the latest in mini-posting, and I’ll post longer things here as I’m able.

In other news, I got an A in my last class. The perfect 4.0 GPA continues! And, our sign arrived for the Pooh room…click for the picture!

Still…I’m old. And I feel like only doubling my salary in ten years of work is not so great of an accomplishment. My life plan had me much farther along by now, and in all fairness, my progression has gotten screwed by 3 different things that were all out of my control (one manager leaving during a promotion cycle, the new manager being one I don’t mesh with and couldn’t get to budge, and then a re-org before I could really get going at my next job), which has left me in the same grade level for 4 years. Things as they are, though, I suppose I should be happy I haven’t managed to zero out my salary.

Lost is back on! Desmond’s baby named Charlie, the others speak Latin, woohoo! B* made me a cake with a Dharma logo. It was delicious…disappeared very quickly, did Ben turn the wheel, shift cake through time? Obama officially president, yay! Didn’t care about inauguration until the day it was on, then was sad I couldn’t watch live and had to work instead. Re-org’d at work into new group but otherwise similar. Got one estimate for the pipe burst repairs from the guy(s) who did our basement, liked their work, but the painting estimate alone was higher than was to paint whole basement. Something smells funny in Denmark, yo. Business name is of the form, [name] the [job]er…which led to Joe-the-plumber, bob-the-builder joking between DH and I. DH has been working odd hours at his second job. Very stressful. Ran Survivor at Mensa AGOG. Had to scramble to get to the minimum ten to play, but once we got there, it was AWESOME. Everyone had bonzer good time. Yay. Knee has been hurting alot lately. Also, period has been irregular. (Not related.) WTF is up with me? Wish knee would stop hurting. But yet, I will be going skiing on Saturday, yay! And knee can just suck on that, thank you very much. Pancake continues to be adorable kitteh. Races me up the stairs. I almost won last night, but only because he let me have a 5 step head start. Thought L4D was an evil time suck, but then Mr. Moo introduced me to Braid, which now is on my bedroom xbox (not mytsukata gamertag). Damn you, Mr. Moo! Got special L4D achievement last night for blowing the witch’s head off, Cr0wnd! Sweet. So cold outside. But weather Saturday promises to be ski-awesome. Found giant and strange fruit at the store, called Pomelo, is huge and we could kill a small child with it, but we won’t. Instead, will eat. Also got some honey tangerines. Enjoying finding and trying out new fruits. Finished second term of class, am 12.5% done with MBA. Group project ended much better than it started. Next term, taking two classes: Effective Leadership *coughbullshitcough* and Negotiations & Conflict Management (win win win). Hoping negotiations will make me awesome at negotiation such that I can help Mensa with hotel negotiation stuff. Will speak quietly so they have to lean in, then will change meeting location suddenly without notice…then will threaten to kill their daughter. Oh and how did Frogurt’s shirt fit Sawyer? Nonsense.

First Lostie to catch the embedded (very subtle) clue in the style of Lost gets something nifty, though I’m not sure what. Adoration? That’s nifty, right?

If I *did* see the e-mail, presumably, I’m working on responding to it. Perhaps I’m trying to gather information. Perhaps I’m waiting to confirm a piece of data. Perhaps I just want to let my thoughts settle to make sure that you get a good response. Either way, the e-mail is in progress. Sending another e-mail just means that either I have to ignore the second e-mail or spend time replying to it that could have been spent on the original task.

If I didn’t see the e-mail, there’s no guarantee that I’ll see this one. Thus, you’re better off just picking up the phone and giving me a call. This saves us both an e-mail.

The only reason I can see for this kind of e-mail is if the deadline for a needed response has been missed or has changed, or if the original e-mail wasn’t clear about who should respond (i.e., was sent to a large list, and the lead is now directing who should respond). (In the former case, I think a phone call may be warranted, just in case the original e-mail was missed or not received.)

• Lots of work, including making peace with a guy who’d been bugging me…worked straight through lunch even and ended up eating “lunch” at 4pm
• DMV: Renewed driver’s license, renewed plates, finally changed name on title of car (2+ years post-marriage) and filed the release of lien paperwork from (blush) 3+ years ago
• Got halfway through Dewey while at the DMV (BTW, Amazon owes me commission. I’ve turned into quite the Kindle promoter while out and about!)
• Had dinner with B* at Panera and laughed often and heartily. Bought 30 cookies for tomorrow at work, as per the usual tradition. (Eat a cookie and make me younger!)
• Updated the ThirtyCon page with addresses and detailed info. Also created an AWESOME google map of ThirtyCon events with amusing (to me) icons for each item.
• While eating with B*, got briefly interrupted by a HOT law-knowing guy who chatted with me for a bit. Wish I wasn’t such a dork and could have flirted properly.
• Cajoled B* into going to Target with me (in the pouring rain). Got thoroughly wet trying to run into Target while wearing clogs. More laughing. Oh, and the purpose of going to Target was, in part, to buy some towels. Hee.
• Came home, unpacked car, and proceeded to the Kitten room. The Kitten room, for those who haven’t had the tour, is our smallest guest bedroom, so named because the previous owners’ daughter had that room and had it painted purple and adorned with a kitten border. The Kitten room also serves as my backup closet. I keep all my dresses in there (my closet in the bedroom doesn’t have anywhere to hang dresses), as well as seasonal gear (e.g., ski clothes) and out-of-season clothes.
• Cleaned the hell out of that room! Yeah! Bee-yotch! You just got served! Packed up stuff in boxes, hung up dresses, labelled crates, sorted through and organized the stuffed animals, moved the bed/cot combo to where it made sense, and started laundry for the sheets and linens. Also created 2 bags of donations and 2 giant boxes of trash.
• Danced to my iPod! Shakira’s Hips Don’t Lie started it.

Woohoo!